Saw this in a box lot at a local auction last Saturday.  Thought for a
second there that I might be going home with a Millers Falls plane.  A
second look cured me of that notion.  This one has (had)
red plastic handles.  So, how do you get a handle to look like this?

http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q780/gctool/20140823_085130_zpsef11
ec0d.jpg">http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q780/gctool/20140823_085130_zpsef1
1ec0d.jpg

And on a brighter note, I ended getting something that I don't remember
seeing before.  Probably cause I never looked.  A two yard wooden
advertising yard stick.  I was the only bidder at a buck, so  I guess I
left some money on the table.  Measured it at home, and found it to be
within 1/16" full length.  I expect it's accurate on day out of the year.
No idea what I'm gonna do with it, but it is different.

Gary Caron
York, PA

On 08/28/14, Gary Caron wrote:

Saw this in a box lot at a local auction last Saturday. Thought for a
second there that I might be going home with a Millers Falls plane. A
second look cured me of that notion. This one has (had)
red plastic handles. So, how do you get a handle to look like this?

http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q780/gctool/20140823_085130_zpsef11
ec0d.jpg">http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q780/gctool/20140823_085130_zpsef1
1ec0d.jpg

Gary Caron saw  "... a Millers Falls plane.  A
second look cured me of that notion.  This one has (had)
red plastic handles.  So, how do you get a handle to look like this?"

http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q780/gctool/20140823_085130_zpsef11
ec0d.jpg">http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q780/gctool/20140823_085130_zpsef1
1ec0d.jpg



Looks like standard plastic decay to me; basically self-generated, though it can
be accelerated by environment.

Plastics are very diverse, and I don't know which one was used by Millers'
Falls. However, the oldest and most common was cellulose nitrate (celluloid),
and Ricky Jay  published a fascinating book on the decay of his collection of
cellulose nitrate dice.

http://www.amazon.com/Dice-Deception-Fate-Rotten-
Luck/dp/1593720300">http://www.amazon.com/Dice-Deception-Fate-Rotten-
Luck/dp/1593720300
http://www
.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=893954

Some of the information is to be found on the Museum of Jurassic Technology
website, though my memory of the book is much more vivid than what is on the
website:

http://www.mjt.org/exhi
bits/rickyjay/rjay.html
http://www.mjt.org/exh
ibits/rickyjay/rjay2.html

Jay's dice are mostly celluloid, which dates back to the 1860s. Although I doubt
celluloid would have been up-to-date enough for Millers Falls, its manner of
decay is similar to a number of other plastics, and gross symptoms of the decay
can be similar. Celluloid is a physical mixture of cellulose nitrate (also known
as guncotton, the dominant high explosive of WWI) and camphor as plasticizer.
Over time the camphor evaporates out of the celluloid, causing it to shrink and
get brittle. The cellulose nitrate polymer breaks down, and in breaking down
releases nitric acid, which accelerates the breakdown, sometimes explosively.
Later plastics used less volatile plasticizers for a physical mixture, or
actually used an "internally plasticized copolymer" where the polumer chain is
runs of the plasticizer alternating with runs of the basic polymer. And later
plastics used polymers that broke down less quickly and less explosively than
cellulose nitrate. Even so,
 many plastics are similar to celluloid in make-up, decay, and physical symptoms
of decay. If I had to make a guess I would say that MF handles are most likely
cellulose acetate, which breaks down a lot like celluloid only slower, but this
is a long way from my real competence and I'm pretty much guessing there.

Tom Conroy

> I can't pretend that I know the answer, but I have seen an odd number of
> Millers Falls No. 209 planes with some seriously F'ed up totes. Could be
> degradation from poorly made polymer.
>

I agree...if I might offer a suggestion.  Once upon a time someone built a
garage for their model A.  They put windows in the end because it is cool.  In
the end of it they placed some long pine boards for a series of shelves and
a workbench of sorts.  This was the sort of pine that was commonplace then
straight grained and clear, I would kill to be able to buy such pine at the
lumberyard today.

However over the years a veritable amount of crap was accumulated (as my
garage attests to) including in that some woodworking tools.  These tools
along with stiff paint brushes and broken shovels and hedge trimmers made
up the accumulation.

At some point in time someone removed the plane from the shelf along with a
considerable amount of dust and without any tuning processed to use it on a
pinewood derby or to trim a door.  Unpleased with its performance they
tossed it on the bench and walked away.

Spring to summer to fall to winter.  The sun rises and sets.  The tote is
exposed to light and darkness.  The knob is protected by a mountain of
garden hose that covers it for years.  The tote witnesses the sun rising
and setting.  The heat of summer the cold of winter.  That's what happened.

123...GO!

Champ

> Spring to summer to fall to winter.  The sun rises and sets.  The tote is
> exposed to light and darkness.  The knob is protected by a mountain of
> garden hose that covers it for years.  The tote witnesses the sun rising
> and setting.  The heat of summer the cold of winter.  That's what happened.

As the kids today would say:  "tote possible".

Pun intended.  :)


--Travis (Brisbane, AU)